R/C Naval Combat

I think it should be safe to assume that any major advancements to the sport will involve some serious costs. Unless 1 of us wins the lottery, it should also probably be assumed that it's going to be Someone Else's Money (even if 1 of us DOES get ulta-lucky, it's still going to be Someone Else's Money to the rest of us).

I guess that means that some sugar daddy needs to be found. Maybe somebody like Mark Cuban, if he decides he wants more than to be an NBA team owner, MLB team owner (looking into buying the Cubs), dancing with stars, & I recently read that he's involved in some sort of "Kickboxing with the Stars" venture. Surely SOMEBODY is out there with a "money-to-sense" ratio that's off the chart, that we can find to finance the new sport of ultimate warship combat.

Before we go asking somebody for money, we should have some idea of how much & what we want it for. Instead of just asking for $XX Million, assuming that it should be "enough", let's use some other threads to work out exactly what we might need/want for the ultimate in combat. We may never get the moon, but some interesting ideas might fall out, some of which might actually get done!

JM

Do we need money as much as time? We have a bunch of engineer in this hobby that are more than capable of creating anything they want... Given time and tools. That being said... CNC machines would be nice.

For me, trying to advance tech, most of the prohibitiveness is time. I have the CNC machine I need to do most of what I am interested in.

The other thing is that if you ever try something new, you will inevitably get three responses
-Cool, I like it
-Don't do it, that will never work
-and some combination of the two

which is why anymore I generally don't bother speculating on the lists as to what I am up to and trying out, as asking for opinions or thoughts quickly (especially as we get into the fall/winter building and battling season) degenerates to a point of uselessness. If I want to bounce something off anyone, I have a short list of folks (such as wreno) who are great people to bounce stuff off of.

I think the biggest part of getting big-name sponsors is getting enough funding that you can pay yourself a salary for working on ships. That way you don't HAVE to have another job.

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Originally posted by Kotori87

I think the biggest part of getting big-name sponsors is getting enough funding that you can pay yourself a salary for working on ships. That way you don't HAVE to have another job.

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Enough money can buy the time you need.

JM

Here's another idea that anybody can use right now: Hook up with charities.

Example: MDA has a boilerplate "Bowl-a-thon" that local groups can run with minimal effort. Participants line up sponsors (co-workers, family, friends, whomever) to sponsor them at some rate per pin. On the appointed day, all bowl their games (donated by local bowling alley). Scores are documented, forms sent to MDA, & MDA's staff does all the collecting.

Something similar could be done with warship combat. Get people to sponsor so much per hole, so much per sink, so much per cargo run, etc. Invite them to come out & cheer on their "teams".

There are plenty of national & local charities. I'm sure somebody would be interested.

JM

Hey, now that's a good idea. A lot of my extended family think that this hobby is absolutely awesome and would probably be willing to sponsor me in some way. Since I'll be operating a convoy ship for next year, all I need to do is ask for some donation per lap completed. Maybe I could get a bonus for sinking.

I think the next step would be live crewed ships. Have you all seen the 1/20 scale model of the Graf Spee that guy in Maine built and drives around his lake powered by a 15 hp outboard motor? Think that with paintball guns.

Mmmm yes, I'd love to build THAT Salt Lake City someday.

here is a link with a few pictures about the model for those who haven't seen them. Note the registration number: ME109E as in the ME-109 E German figher of WW2.

http://www.bismarck-class.dk/shipmodels/german_models/admiralgrafspeeterra.html

quote:

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Originally posted by crzyhawk

I think the next step would be live crewed ships. Have you all seen the 1/20 scale model of the Graf Spee that guy in Maine built and drives around his lake powered by a 15 hp outboard motor? Think that with paintball guns.

Mmmm yes, I'd love to build THAT Salt Lake City someday.

here is a link with a few pictures about the model for those who haven't seen them. Note the registration number: ME109E as in the ME-109 E German figher of WW2.

http://www.bismarck-class.dk/shipmodels/german_models/admiralgrafspeeterra.html

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Not so crazy, really. There's probably room for a lot more scales & formats than what we have now. I would expect the "pro" classes to start well above 1:144 anyway.

Why not sinkable, though? Of course, appropriate safety measure would be needed. Also divers & a barge with crane on hand for recovery (maybe a 1:20 Hughes Glomar Explorer, complete with grapple & "moon pool"?)! But just think of the interior video shots, of the guys abandoning ship & swimming out as it goes down!

JM

Well given a boat that size, I think that some of the equipment would more then a little difficult to waterproof, such as ship to shore radios, and gas powered engines. For something that large, I'd probably want some kind of a real range finder, and a fire control computer (a program on a laptop is probably viable) to help calculate my firing solution to allow for better long range gunnery. You could probably get away with a two person crew similar to most jet fighters these days: A pilot and a weapons officer. The pilot would obviously focus on driving and maneuvering the boat while the weapons officer concentrated on engaging and hitting the enemy ships.

Another benefit is you could make money off a venture like this if you had it as an attraction where people could rent the boats and play, so to speak. This would be kinda like a go-cart track. You pay your money, race the car around the track a few times, and pull back in when you are done. So let some people go out, fight boats and pay you for the privilege of playing your game.

Mike D